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Without Optimus support the Nvidia chip embedded in my laptop remains unusable... Nvidia Linux team should really focus on the blocking feature first.

Yeah... or how about simply working even when Optimus is disabled. My Thinkpad T520's firmware settings can be configured for integrated, discrete, or Optimus. When I choose discrete, the Nouveau drivers for X will load fine, but the nVidia binary blob won't.

One thing's for sure... when Steam for Linux comes out... I'll be sticking with Windows.

I must say I'm concerned about the lasting "first impressions" impact there will be when Steam for Linux is released... hmm, let me explain what I mean.

There's quite a few people at my work who have now switched to Linux, including one who was pretty much a hard-core brainwashed Windows user just a few years back. I've noticed that due to my using different Linux variants for a while now that I've just become used to all the little niggling issues that need to be worked around, and I first buy hardware that I know will perform well in Linux. People new to the OS don't know straight up that hardware X or driver Y might not work well for gaming. I have had numerous questions from newcomers and many disappointed looks when they come across problem after problem such as graphics driver woes, dependency problems, even simple things like ALT+TAB not working while gaming (lots of UT2004 players at my office)...

I'm worried that Steam for Linux might convince a number of people to try out Linux, but when they do try it they'll have problem X (e.g. no direct rendering from their discrete card due to lack of support for an Optimus setup) which will leave a bad taste in their mouth when they don't know how to solve it or work around it.

What used to simply "just work" in Ubuntu 10.10 / 11.04 does not, at all, work anymore. It just doesn't work. I don't know how else to explain it. It's like the Apple philosophy reversed. Despite the 400 million trillion patches sent out for unity / compiz, the OS just plain simply does not work, especially for gaming.

Just the other day I had to dip into XBMC to check something out and that's when I realized that the program is absolutely, 100% completely unusable in Ubuntu 12.04 (w/ -proposed repository for the latest unity updates). Literally so choppy as to be unusable -- on a Core i7 w/ a GeForce 570. This program used to be 100% smooth and flawless on 11.04.

So between the ridiculous tearing, awful performance, desktop that doesn't work and the fact that game selections will be limited, I see no reason to move my gaming experience to something far far inferior.

In the 10.10 days I could play Doom3 without any problems, but that's not the case anymore.

Or maybe it's just time to dump Ubuntu. I thought it was supposed to be the "Linux for human beings".